The Game Awards 2016: Who Deserves To Win Each Category

5. Best Strategy Game - XCOM 2

Nominations:

Civilization VI

Fire Emblem Fates

The Banner Saga 2

Total War: WarHammer

XCOM 2

A very tough category, I'm going to have to go with XCOM 2, simply because no matter how many times you play, no matter which strategies you have memorised or which characters you train, it'll always box you into a corner and force you to think of something else.

The sheer difficulty curve of an average XCOM 2 session can go from, "Okay, we got this" to "OH GOD, NOW WHAT?!" in seconds. The sequel is ostensibly more of the same, but with some excellent narrative framing putting humanity on the back foot after a successful alien invasion.

This translates into gameplay, where every fight for survival ensures you better put your characters in the right place, give them the right orders and ensure you've got a good foresight and planning, or you can literally lose everything in one fell swoop.